Gofundme aids shooting victim’s sons
Brothers have no other family in United States
A Gofundme page in memory of Hyun Jung Grant, one of eight people killed in shootings at Georgia spas last week, had raised more than $2.6 million as of Sunday morning for her two sons.
Hyun Jung Grant, 51, was a single mother to Randy Park, 22, and his brother Eric, 21. On the Gofundme page, Randy Park explains how his mother worked long hours at Gold Spa and was often away from home for days or weeks at a time. The brothers have no other family in the U.S.; the rest are living in South Korea and unable to come here, he said.
“I have no time to grieve for long,” Randy Park said on the page. “I will need to figure out the living situation for my brother and I for the next few months, possibly year.”
He describes his mother as one of his best friends and a strong influence on his brother and himself. And in an update posted as the money rolled in, Park expressed gratitude to the more than 60,000 people who posted donated.
“I don’t know how any word I write here will ever convey how grateful and blessed I am to receive this much support,” he wrote. “Sharing and listening was more than enough thank you so much. And to those of you that have donated any amount of money. To put it bluntly, I can’t believe you guys exist. People I will probably never meet, hear, nor express my thanks to.”
The generosity comes amid an alarming wave of hate crimes against Asian Americans across the country fueled by racism and xenophobia exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak and anti-china rhetoric.
Grant was among four people identified Friday by the Fulton County Medical Examiner as victims of the fatal shootings at the spas in Atlanta. The three others were identified as Soon Chung Park, 74, Suncha Kim, 69, and Yong Ae Yue, 63.
Four other people were killed at a spa in Acworth, 30 miles north of the city – Delaina Yaun, 33; Paul Michels, 54, Xiaojie Tan, 49, and Daoyou Feng, 44.
Six of the victims were Asian American women. A white man and a white woman also were killed. Robert Aaron Long, 21, is charged with multiple murder counts in the rampage.
Other Gofundme pages have raised money for victims. A page for Delain Yaun has collected more than $90,000.
Randy Park, who spoke with USA TODAY last week, said he learned of his mother’s death Tuesday shortly after the shooting. He and his brother drove the 30 minutes to Gold Spa. He’d never seen where she worked.
He said his mom was a teenager at heart. She loved to hang out with friends, go dancing, listen to Dutch DJ Tiësto and sing karaoke. She was a great singer, he said.
“She dedicated her whole life to raising
us and even then she found time to enjoy herself with her friends,” he said.
To Park, Grant was more than just “mom.” She was filled with kindness and understanding.
“Thank you everyone and please share whatever care and kindness you have shown here to anyone you know that feels scared or unsure about the world we live in,” he said on the Gofundme page. “This doesn’t represent even a fragment of how I feel. My mother can rest easy knowing I have the support of the world with me.”
Contributing: Jane Mo and Trevor Hughes